The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Digital Edition > My Day
My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt

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WASHINGTON, Saturday—The Girl Scout dinner in New York Friday night was a very delightful occasion. I enjoyed very much having a chance to talk to Mrs. Frederick H. Brook who presided, and her remark that "it is nice to have a chance to talk to me out of Washington since I rarely have a chance to talk to you in Washington," was a comment on the way things go in this strangely busy life of the White House. Sir Gerald Campbell, the English Consul General in New York made a most witty speech. You laughed so much that you were apt to forget until afterwards when you thought it over, how much of real importance had been said. Like all Englishmen with university training, he has read much and there is no question that if you are going to do much speaking, a classical background and a wide range of reading is helpful in illustrating aptly whatever you may wish to say.

Mrs. Harper Sibley and I did our best which could not, however, touch the gentleman on this occasion, though I imagine that our actual experience with Girl Scouts was wider and more personal than his.

I dashed back to my apartment, changed my clothes and reached the midnight train a little after midnight, but as it does not actually pull out until twelve-forty, I was undressed and ready to be rocked to sleep by the motion of the train before we left the station.

Back in the White House by seven-thirty this morning. I have decided to write this column on Saturday instead of Sunday for after an extremely busy morning I am about to start out on a motor trip. I have no idea where I shall be tonight and I am not very sure where I shall be tomorrow and it would be rather sad to find myself out of reach of any kind of a telegraph office, so for the sake of safety I am leaving this behind.

On Monday I will make it a point to be somewhere in touch with a wire and so I can tell you where I have alighted in the meantime.

While in New York yesterday I dashed into a toy shop and picked out several things that I thought a little girl might find amusing while she was obliged to stay in bed. With the package under my arm I went in to see Sara this morning, the first time I have paid her a visit since she was taken ill. She informed me that she felt quite well, was going to get up this afternoon and could turn on the side where she had had the operation. What a grand thing it is to be young and not anticipate all the ills and discomforts that ordinarily go with appendicitis. If you are uncomfortable at least only once—not first in your mind and then in actuality!

As usually happens when I decided to take time off, I crammed so many things into this morning that I have had to take a few leftovers in my brief case away with me. Gypsying is rather nice however, even if you have a little work with you for you do not have that sense of having to do anything at a stated hour and that in itself is restful.

E.R.


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About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, April 12, 1937

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962
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Digital edition created by The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project The George Washington University 312 Academic Building 2100 Foxhall Road, NW Washington, DC 20007

  • Brick, Christopher (Editor)
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Digital edition published 2008, 2017 by
The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project

Available under licence from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

Published with permission from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

MEP edition publlished on June 30, 2008.

TEI-P5 edition published on April 28, 2017.

XML master last modified on June 9, 2017.

HTML version generated and published on May 3, 2022.

Transcription created from a photocopy of a draft version of a My Day column instance archived at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library. My Day column draft dated April 11, 1937, FDR Library, Hyde Park, NY
TMsd, 11 April 1937, AERP, FDRL